Quote Originally Posted by Mike_G View Post
As with all things, it depends on a lot.

First, you need the right knife. Some knives don't slash well at all. And you need the right target. If you are fighting, not just walking up and shanking an unsuspecting guy, you might slash at his arms to disable his knife hand or stop him from grabbing you. His hands and arms are probably closer to you that his body, so you may not be able to stab him until you get past the arms, which might be holding a weapon, so trying to disable them first is something you might so.

A slash (with a big enough knife) is more likely to severe muscle or tendons and blood vessels than a stab, so on an arm, it's more likely to be disabling. I't less likely to reach organs if you slash at teh body than if you stab.

All that said, people can take a lot of stabbing. There are lots of accounts of people being stabbed a ton of times before falling over, even if the wounds eventually prove fatal. Slashing the guy's weapon hand first might not be an awful idea.
Also sometimes you want to not kill your opponent, but just disable him (usually killing someone is a much harsher penalty - there could also be religious/moral reasons for not killing someone).